Category Archives: WORLD

EUROPE, SPAIN, WORLD

Neanderthals seem to have been carnivores

Neanderthals seem to have been carnivores

A new study published on October 17, 2022, in the journal PNAS, led by a CNRS researcher, uses zinc isotope analysis for the first time to determine the place of Neanderthals in the food chain. The results obtained suggest that they would indeed have been carnivores.

Were Neanderthals carnivores? Scientists have not yet decided on the question. If certain studies of dental calculus of individuals coming from the Iberian peninsula could suggest that they were large consumers of plants, other research carried out on non-Iberian sites seemed rather indicate an almost exclusive consumption of meat.

Thanks to new analytical techniques applied to a molar from an individual of this species, researchers 1  have demonstrated that the Neanderthals at the Gabasa site in Spain seemed to be carnivores.

Until then, to try to define an individual’s place in the food chain, scientists generally had to extract proteins and analyze the isotopes of nitrogen present in the collagen of bones. 

However, this method is often only applicable in temperate environments, and rarely on samples over 50,000 years old. When these conditions are not met, the analysis of nitrogen isotopes is very complex, if not impossible. This was particularly the case for the molar from the Gabasa site, studied here.

Faced with these constraints, Klervia Jaouen, a researcher at the CNRS, and her colleagues have this time analyzed the isotopic ratios of zinc contained in dental enamel, a mineral resistant to all forms of degradation. This is the first time this method has been used to try to identify the diet of a Neanderthal.

The lower the proportions of zinc isotopes in the bones, the more likely they are to belong to a carnivore.

This measurement was also carried out on animal bones from the same period and geographical area, both on carnivores such as the lynx or the wolf, and on herbivores such as the rabbit or the chamois. As a result, the Neanderthal to whom this Gabasa tooth belonged would have been carnivorous and did not consume the blood of its prey.

According to broken bones found at the site and isotopic data, this individual would also have eaten the bone marrow of its prey, without consuming the bones. 

Other chemical tracers show that he was weaned before he was two years old. Analyzes also show that he would probably have died where he had lived as a child.

Compared to previous techniques, this new method, by analyzing zinc isotopes, makes it possible to better distinguish omnivores from carnivores. 

The scientists hope to reproduce the experiment on other individuals, coming from other sites to confirm their conclusions, in particular on the Payre site where new research has begun.

Neanderthals seem to have been carnivores
The First Neanderthal molar analyzed for this study
Excavation work at the Gabasa site, in Spain

Bibliography

A Neandertal dietary conundrum: new insights provided by tooth enamel Zn isotopes from Gabasa, Spain . Klervia Jaouen, Vanessa Villalba Mouco, Geoff M. Smith, Manuel Trost, Jennifer Leichliter, Tina Lüdecke, Pauline Méjean, Stéphanie Mandrou, Jérôme Chmeleff, Danaé Guiserix, Nicolas Bourgon, Fernanda Blasco, Jéssica Mendes Cardoso, Camille Duquenoy, Zineb Moubtahij, Domingo C. Salazar Garcia, Michael Richards, Thomas Tütken, Jean Jacques Hublin, Pilar Utrilla, and Lourdes Montes, PNAS , October 17, 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2109315119

EUROPE, WORLD

Dairy Fat Detected in Neolithic Pottery from Central Europe

Dairy Fat Detected in Neolithic Pottery from Central Europe

A new study has shown milk was used by the first farmers from Central Europe in the early Neolithic era around 7,400 years ago, advancing humans’ ability to gain sustenance from milk and establishing the early foundations of the dairy industry.

The international research, led by the University of Bristol and published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), deployed a pioneering technique to date dairy fat traces preserved in the walls of pottery vessels from the 54th Century BC.

This method targets fatty acids from animal fat residues, making it uniquely suited to pinpointing the introduction of new foodstuffs in prehistoric times.

Dairy Fat Detected in Neolithic Pottery from Central Europe
Part of a decorative LBK ceramic pot used for food storage from the Ensisheim site in Alsace, France.
Part of an LBK ceramic pot used for food storage from the Colmar site in Alsace, France.
LBK ceramics from the Alsace region on display at the Historic Museum of Mulhouse, Mulhouse France.

Lead author Dr Emmanuelle Casanova, who conducted the research while completing her PhD in archaeological chemistry at the University of Bristol, said: “It is amazing to be able to accurately date the very beginning of milk exploitation by humans in prehistoric times.

The development of agropastoralism transformed prehistoric human diet by introducing new food commodities, such as milk and milk products, which continues to the present day.”

These settlers of South East, East, and West Europe were the earliest Neolithic farming groups in Central Europe, known as the Linearbandkeramik (LBK) culture.

The findings of this research showed some of the very first settlers in the region were using milk at scale.

This work was part of the European Research Council (ERC) NeoMilk project led by Professor Richard Evershed FRS of the School of Chemistry at the University of Bristol.

His team analysed more than 4,300 pottery vessels from 70 LBK settlements for their food residues. The results revealed considerable variation in milk use across the region, with only 65 percent of sites presenting evidence of dairy fats in ceramic vessels, suggesting milk use, while common, was not universally adopted by these early farmers.

Focussing on the sites and ceramics with dairy residues, the researchers produced around 30 new radiocarbon dates to chart the advent of dairy exploitation by LBK farmers. These new dates correspond to the earliest LBK settlements during the middle of the 6th Millenium BC.

Co-lead author Professor Evershed said: “This research is hugely significant as it provides new insights into the timing of major changes in human food procurement practices, as they evolved across Europe. It provides clear evidence that dairy foods were in wide circulation in the Early Neolithic, despite variations in the scale of activity.”

The study was conducted in collaboration with chemists from the University of Bristol and archaeologists from the Universities of Gdańsk, Paris 1, Strasbourg, Leiden, and Adam Mickiewicz, the Dobó István Castle Museum, Historic England, and the LVR-State Service for Archaeological Heritage, which directed excavations of the studied sites.

ASIA, EUROPE, RUSSIA, WORLD

DNA Analysis Identifies Neanderthal Family Members

DNA Analysis Identifies Neanderthal Family Members

The first snapshot of a Neanderthal community has been pieced together by scientists who examined ancient DNA from fragments of bone and teeth unearthed in caves in southern Siberia.

DNA Analysis Identifies Neanderthal Family Members
The remains were found in caves in southern Siberia.

Researchers analysed DNA from 13 Neanderthal men, women and children and found an interconnecting web of relationships, including a father and his teenage daughter, another man related to the father, and two second-degree relatives, possibly an aunt and her nephew.

All of the Neanderthals were heavily inbred, a consequence, the researchers believe, of the Neanderthals’ small population size, with communities scattered over vast distances and numbering only about 10 to 30 individuals.

Laurits Skov, the first author on the study at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, said the fact that the Neanderthals were alive at the same time was “very exciting” and implied that they belonged to a single social community.

Neanderthal remains have been recovered from numerous caves across western Eurasia – territory the heavy-browed humans occupied from about 430,000 years ago until they became extinct 40,000 years ago. It has previously been impossible to tell whether Neanderthals found at particular sites belonged to communities or not.

“Neanderthal remains in general, and remains with preserved DNA in particular, are extremely rare,” said Benjamin Peter, a senior author on the study in Leipzig. “We tend to get single individuals from sites often thousands of kilometres, and tens of thousands of years apart.”

In the latest work, researchers including Svante Pääbo, who won this year’s Nobel prize in medicine for breakthrough studies on ancient genomes, examined DNA from the remains of Neanderthals found in the Chagyrskaya cave and nearby Okladnikov cave in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia.

Neanderthals sheltered in the caves about 54,000 years ago, seeking cover to feast on the ibex, horse and bison they hunted as the animals migrated along the river valleys the caves overlook. Beyond Neanderthal and animal bones, tens of thousands of stone tools were also found.

Writing in the journal Nature, the scientists describe how the ancient DNA points to the Neanderthals living at the same time, with some being members of the same family.

Further analysis revealed more genetic diversity in Neanderthal mitochondria – the tiny battery-like structures found inside cells which are only passed down the maternal line – than in their Y chromosomes, which are passed down from father to son.

The most likely explanation, the researchers say, is that female Neanderthals travelled from their home communities to live with male partners. Whether force was involved is not a question DNA can answer, however.

“Personally, I don’t think there is particularly good evidence that Neanderthals were much different from early modern humans that lived at the same time,” said Peter.

“We find that the community we study was likely very small, perhaps 10 to 20 individuals and that the wider Neanderthal populations in the Altai mountains were quite sparse,” Peter said. “Nevertheless, they managed to persevere in a rough environment for hundreds of thousands of years, which I think deserves great respect.”

Dr Lara Cassidy, an assistant professor in genetics at Trinity College Dublin, called the study a “milestone” as “the first genomic snapshot of a Neanderthal community”.

“Understanding how their societies were organised is important for so many reasons,” Cassidy said. “It humanises these people and gives rich context to their lives. But also, down the line if we have more studies like this, it may also reveal unique aspects of the social organisation of our own Homo sapiens ancestors. This is crucial to understanding why we are here today and Neanderthals are not.”

ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

A 6,000-year-old skull found in a cave in Taiwan possibly confirms the legend of an Indigenous tribe

A 6,000-year-old skull found in a cave in Taiwan possibly confirms the legend of an Indigenous tribe

A team of researchers with members from Australia, Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam found a 6,000-year-old skull and femur bones in a cave in a mountainous part of Taiwan that might prove the existence of an ancient Indigenous tribe.

The preceramic human remains from No. 5 Cave (1) and representative stone tools from the preceramic layer, including the cobble chopping tools (2), flake tools (3), and fine-material lithic tools made of quartz (4) of Xiaoma (after Huang and Chen 1990). Credit: World Archaeology (2022). DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2022.2121315
The preceramic human remains from No. 5 Cave (1) and representative stone tools from the preceramic layer, including the cobble chopping tools (2), flake tools (3), and fine-material lithic tools made of quartz (4) of Xiaoma (after Huang and Chen 1990).

In their paper published in the journal World Archaeology, the group describes the skull, where it was found and what it might represent.

In Taiwan, there have been stories passed down through the generations about a tribe of short, dark-skinned people that once lived in mountainous parts of the island. But until now, there has been no physical evidence of them.

In this new effort, the researchers found skull and leg bones in a cave that have been dated back to approximately 6,000 years ago—a time before the ancestors of people who are alive on the island arrived.

In studying DNA from the skull, the researchers found it close to African samples from around the same time period. But they also found that its size and shape resemble that of Negritos, who lived in parts of what is now South Africa and in the Philippines.

A study of bones left behind in those areas showed them to be quite short with small body size. Femur bones found near the skull were from the same person as the skull, a young woman.

The researchers estimate she stood approximately 1.3 meters tall.

The researchers suggest their findings confirm the existence of the ancient people in Taiwan but they do not explain what might have happened to them.

They were apparently gone by the time other early Austronesian groups of people began arriving.

The researchers also note that the mention of small, dark-skinned people was made in documents from the Quin Dynasty, and all but one of the 16 Austronesian groups living in Taiwan today have stories that describe small, dark-skinned people who once lived in the mountains.

Such tales differ, however, between groups, the researchers note, with some believing that the earlier people were ancestors of theirs. Others see them as former enemies.

One group claims to have killed off the last of the ancient people 1,000 years ago.

WORLD

Banana Domestication More Complex Than Previously Thought

Banana Domestication More Complex Than Previously Thought

People like to know where their food comes from, but even experts are throwing up their hands when it comes to the origins of the modern banana.

Breeding helped get rid of wild bananas’ seeds to create the fleshy fruit cherished today.

An extensive genetic analysis of more than 100 varieties of wild and cultivated bananas unpeels the fruit’s tangled history of domestication and reveals the existence of three previously unknown—and possibly still living—ancestors.

Banana experts want to track down those mysterious forebears to see whether their genes might help keep modern banana crops healthy.

“Banana domestication is much more complicated than I had realized previously,” says Loren Rieseberg, an evolutionary biologist at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, who was not involved in the study.

About 7000 years ago, bananas were not the seedless, fleshy fruits we know today. The flesh was pitted with black seeds and nearly inedible. Instead, people ate the banana tree’s flowers or its underground tubers. They also stripped fibres from the trunklike stem to make rope and clothes. Banana trees back then were “very far from the bananas we see in people’s fields today,” says Julie Sardos, a genetic resources scientist at the Alliance of Bioversity International, which stockpiles banana varieties.

Scientists do know the banana’s predominant wild ancestor is a species named Musa acuminata, which occurs from India to Australia. Most researchers agree that Papua New Guinea is where domesticated bananas as we know them first appeared. Today, there are many banana varieties—more than 1000 at the last count.

Over the course of their domestication, the modern bananas available in supermarkets lost their seeds and became fleshier and sweeter. But it’s been hard to pin down exactly how and when that domestication occurred.

Complicating matters, some bananas have the usual two sets of chromosomes, whereas others have three sets or more, suggesting at least some modern bananas are hybrids that resulted from the interbreeding of two or more varieties, or even different species.

There’s good reason to try to tap into the modern banana’s deep historical gene pool: The $8 billion banana industry, which produces 100 billion bananas annually, is threatened by diseases such as Panama disease and banana bacterial wilt.

Banana breeders are scrambling to find ways to combat such pathogens, particularly the ones that attack the Cavendish banana, which accounts for more than half of all the bananas exported to the United States and Europe.

Some are collecting wild relatives and obscure varieties that are more resistant to disease. But introducing genes from distant ancestors could also help steel modern-day bananas. Genetic analyses can help piece together the history of domestication and pin down living members of those ancestral fruits.

Nabila Yahiaoui, a banana genomics scientist at the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development in Montpellier, and colleagues previously compared DNA from 24 collected samples of wild and domestic bananas.

In a few of them, they found something puzzling: DNA that didn’t match that from any of the other samples. Based on that finding, they proposed in 2020 that, in addition to M. acuminata and other known wild relatives, two unknown species contributed DNA to the modern banana.

In the new study, Sardos and her colleagues expanded on that work, focusing on banana varieties with two sets of chromosomes, as they are likely more closely related to the first domesticated bananas. (The Cavendish has three sets.) They sampled the DNA of 68 samples of wild relatives and of 154 types of cultivated bananas, including 25 varieties Sardos’s team collected in Papua New Guinea. That’s an impressive number of cultivars, some of which can be hard to obtain, says Tim Denham, an archaeologist at Australian National University who was not involved with the work.

The comparison provided more evidence that bananas were originally cultivated on New Guinea and suggested an M. acuminata subspecies named “banksia” was the first to be domesticated.

The same subspecies subsequently contributed to more widespread cultivated varieties, Sardos and colleagues report this month in Frontiers in Plant Science. “This [conclusion] is significant,” Denham says. “It confirms previous archaeological, botanical, linguistic, and genetic studies.”

The samples also pointed to the existence of a third unknown source of banana genetic material, the team reported. Scientists have yet to identify the three species; their data suggest one came from New Guinea, one from the Gulf of Thailand, and the third from somewhere between northern Borneo and the Philippines.

Denham was surprised to find that the modern banana varieties on New Guinea are more genetically diverse than their wild ancestor. “This runs counter to most genetic arguments that speculate that initial domestication results in a bottleneck,” he says. He suspects that even as banana growers worked to improve bananas, there was rampant interbreeding with wild relatives, leading to bunches of varieties with different genetic ancestries.

“This work further confirms the importance of hybridization in the evolution of [certain] crops,” says Rieseberg, whose work with sunflowers has demonstrated that interbreeding can be important for evolution.

The field remains ripe with possibility: Sardos and other banana aficionados are hoping to visit small farms and other sites in the ancestral bananas’ homelands to see whether they can find more modern descendants. They, too, may yield a stock resistant to disease that can be crossbred with commercial bananas. “There is a lot of unsampled banana diversity out there,” Rieseberg says.

CZECH REPUBLIC, EUROPE, WORLD

The ancient Golden Belt Discovered in the Czech Republic

The ancient Golden Belt Discovered in the Czech Republic

A small farmer in the Opava region in the northeast of Czechia made a unique discovery while working in a field, unearthing a golden belt dating back to the Bronze Age. The ornamented piece, which is exceptionally well-preserved, should go on display at the Bruntál museum at the end of next year.

The golden belt had been lying underground for thousands of years before being unearthed by a farmer while he was harvesting beetroots.

The founder, who wishes to remain in anonymity, discovered the ancient piece of apparel at the end of September and immediately contacted archaeologists from the Silesian Museum in Opava.

Jiří Juchelka, head of the museum’s archaeology department, says that as soon as he saw a photo of the item, he knew it was something exceptional.

The first hypothesis was that the thin golden sheet of metal, which is around 50 centimetres long, was a tiara. However, after examining the object in greater detail, experts now believe it was actually part of a belt:

“It is decorated with raised concentric circles and topped with rose-shaped clasps at the ends. We realized that it was too long to fit on someone’s head.  So we actually think it is not a tiara, but something much rarer – a part of a belt.

“Belts at the time were made of leather and this was strapped to its front part. It was crumpled when the finder found it, probably as a result of agricultural activity, so it is a miracle it has been so well preserved. It may be missing a few tiny parts, but otherwise, it is in perfect condition.”

The thin metal sheet is made mostly of gold, along with some silver and traces of copper and iron. A preliminary analysis places its origin around the 14th century BC, says Tereza Alex Kilnarová, conservator at the Museum of Bruntál.

“It is estimated to be from the middle to the late Bronze Age, but it is only a preliminary determination based on the decoration.

“Similar decorative ornaments appear in more than one prehistoric culture and therefore more detailed research and analysis of the metal is needed.

“It probably belonged to someone in a high position in society, because items of such value were rarely produced at the time. That’s why we are talking about someone more esteemed.”

While the monetary value of the belt is yet to be determined, it is already clear that the object has an incalculable cultural and historical value, says Ms Kilnarová:

“Such objects are rarely found even during excavations, so it is a really unique discovery, not only in our region but all over Czechia. I think it is safe to say that it will be one of the most valuable objects that will have on display in our museum.”

The rare item, which will become part of the Museum of Bruntál collections, will now be thoroughly examined and conserved, before going on display for the public.

The ancient Golden Belt Discovered in the Czech Republic
EUROPE, IRELAND, WORLD

Megalithic Portal Tomb Identified in Ireland

Megalithic Portal Tomb Identified in Ireland

Megalithic Portal Tomb Identified in Ireland
Connemara-based archaeologist Michael Gibbons now says there is conclusive evidence the Carraig á Mhaistin stone structure at Rostellan on the eastern shore of Cork Harbour is a megalithic dolmen.

New research looks set to answer a long-standing question about the status of a mysterious tomb-like structure uncovered in Cork Harbour many years ago.

Archaeologists have been split as to whether it was prehistoric or a more recent 19th-century “folly”.

However, Connemara-based archaeologist Michael Gibbons now says there is conclusive evidence the Carraig á Mhaistin stone structure at Rostellan on the eastern shore of Cork Harbour is a megalithic dolmen.

Mr Gibbons has also discovered a previously unrecognised cairn close to the dolmen which would have been concealed by rising sea levels, and which he is reporting to the National Monuments Service.

The Carraig á Mhaistin dolmen at Rostellan is listed by some guides as Ireland’s only inter-tidal portal tomb.

In fact, there are two such inter-tidal tombs, Mr Gibbons says.

The small chamber at the tomb stands at the western end of the cairn, which is 25m long and 4.5m wide.

He says doubt about Carraig á Mhaistin’s age meant it was not included in the State’s survey of megalithic tombs of Ireland conducted by Professor Ruaidhrí de Valera and Seán Ó Nualláin over 40 years ago.

“At that time, it was suggested that it could have a folly or type of ornamental structure commissioned by local gentry at the nearby Rostellan Castle estate, and dating from the 19th century,” Mr Gibbons says.

The small chamber at the tomb stands at the western end of the cairn, which is 25m long and 4.5m wide. Picture: Michael Gibbons

His recent field trip to Rostellan has thrown up additional details, including the discovery that the small chamber at the tomb stands at the western end of the cairn, which is 25m long and 4.5m wide.

This is significant, as a portal and court tombs “occasionally have intact long cairns which are both intended to provide structural support to the chamber itself, and to enhance visual presence in the landscape”, he says.

The cairn is “partially entombed in estuarine mud” and it is probable a great deal more of the structure is concealed below the surface, Mr Gibbons says in a report he has written on the monument.

He notes it is not known for certain when the area was inundated by rising sea levels, but levels at this part of the Cork Harbour shoreline are believed to have been stable for 2,000 years.

Mr Gibbons says the only other known inter-tidal portal tomb on the island is at “the Lag” on the river Ilen, between Skibbereen and Baltimore in West Cork.

Portal tombs or dolmens were often known as “Diarmuid and Gráinne’s bed”, being associated in folklore as resting places for the fugitive couple who were pursued by Fionn mac Cumhaill, Gráinne’s husband.

Mr Gibbons says many were built close to the coast, but the two known tombs in the inter-tidal zone may have been part of a wider network which did not survive the “high energy environment” of the Atlantic seaboard.

He says recent extreme weather has destroyed Sherkin Island’s sole megalithic tomb on Slievemore townland, just 3m to 4m above the high water mark.

Mr Gibbons says the Sherkin structure had been an example of a “very fine wedge tomb”, but it was initially severely hit by the storms of 2014, which caused substantial damage to coastal archaeology in a number of locations.

What remains of the Sherkin wedge tomb has been almost entirely eroded away by recent storms, but there are some structural stones remaining which would warrant a rescue excavation, he says.

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Possible Burial Place of St. Nicholas Uncovered in Turkey

Possible Burial Place of St. Nicholas Uncovered in Turkey

Possible Burial Place of St. Nicholas Uncovered in Turkey
A fresco of Jesus in a church in Turkey’s Antalya region hinted at the exact location of Saint Nicholas’ burial.

Archaeologists in southern Turkey have just uncovered the original burial place of Father Christmas himself, formally known as St. Nicholas, but whose modern nicknames of Santa Claus, Saint Nick and Kris Kringle are known by children the world over.

While researchers already knew that the saint’s body was buried in the fourth century A.D. church in Turkey’s Antalya province, the holy man’s remains were stolen around 700 years after he died, so the specific spot where he was originally interred was a mystery.

Now, clues gathered during a new excavation of this church, including the ecclesiastical building’s similarity to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the placement of a fresco depicting Jesus, hint at exactly where St. Nick’s body was likely laid to rest.

Located on Turkey’s southern coast, the modern town of Demre boasts the Church of St. Nicholas, built in A.D. 520 on top of an older church where the Christian saint served as bishop in the fourth century A.D. Then known as Myra, the small town was a popular Christian pilgrimage spot following St. Nicholas’ death and burial there in A.D. 343.

Very little is known about Nicholas’s life, but legends abound — he is said to have rescued three girls from prostitution, to have chopped down a demon-possessed tree, to have resurrected three murdered children who were pickled in brine, and to have gotten into a fist-fight during the First Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325, according to Britannica(opens in new tab). And, of course, Nicholas was said to have frequently given away his inherited wealth anonymously to the poor, eventually leading to the legend of St. Nick as Santa Claus.

Unfortunately, in A.D. 1087, “some wise and illustrious men of Bari [Italy]… discussed together how they might take away from the city of Myra… the body of the most blessed confessor of Christ, Nicholas,” according to a contemporaneous manuscript translated from Latin by late medievalist Charles W. Jones.

Their plan was to “break open the floor of the church and carry away the holy corpse.” The group succeeded, carting off most of the skeletal remains of St. Nicholas, and leaving just a few bones and a broken sarcophagus in Myra.

In spite of this desecration, the church of St. Nicholas in Demre itself has survived for more than a millennium, with archaeological excavation beginning at the end of the 20th century.

Through this work, researchers discovered the foundations of the earliest church, covered by many feet of sand and silt. Last week, Osman Eravşar, chairman of the Antalya Cultural Heritage Preservation Regional Board, announced the discovery of the location of St. Nicholas’s tomb at the base of a fresco of Jesus.

In an interview(opens in new tab) with the Turkish news organization DHA (Demirören Haber Ajansı), Eravşar noted that the current excavations have revealed “the floor on which St. Nicholas’s feet stepped” from the original church.

“This is an extremely important discovery, the first find from that period,” DHA’s English coverage quoted Eravşar as saying.

The sarcophagus of Saint Nicholas is located in a church named after the saint in the down of Demre, Turkey. The saints’s bones were stolen centuries ago, but the sarcophagus survived. New research has pinpointed the exact burial spot where St. Nick was originally interred.

The original burial place of St. Nicholas has also been found, according to Eravşar. When the Bari contingent removed the saint’s bones in the 11th century, they also shoved some sarcophagi aside, obscuring their original location. Eravşar told DHA that “his sarcophagus must have been placed in a special place, and that is the part with three apses covered with a dome.

There we have discovered the fresco depicting the scene where Jesus is holding a Bible in his left hand and making the sign of blessing with his right hand.” A marble floor tile with the Greek words for “as grace” could mark his exact grave.

Supporting that hypothesis is the shape of the church itself. Just as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has an unfinished dome on top, so does the Church of St. Nicholas at Myra.

When it was restored by Emperor Alexander II of Russia in the 1860s, the dome was never completed. This unfinished dome may have been a purposeful attempt to link St. Nicholas with the story of Jesus’s crucifixion and ascension into the sky.

“It’s not unusual for churches to be built atop one another,” William Caraher, an archaeologist at the University of North Dakota with a speciality in early Christian architecture, who was not involved in the excavation, told Live Science in an email. “In fact, the presence of an earlier church on a site has been a reason to build a church since Early Christian and Byzantine times.” 

But Caraher thinks that the marble floor tile with Greek letters could be from some other context, reused possibly in antiquity because of the common word “charis” (grace) etched into it.

Caraher noted that St. Nicholas is significant in Orthodox and Catholic traditions, with churches and chapels dedicated to him throughout the Mediterranean. “I think many people — from eager kiddos on Christmas Eve to world-weary science reporters and grizzled archaeologists — have at some point in their lives hoped to get a little glimpse of the real St. Nick,” Caraher said.